Pirate Bay Founder Will Be Deported, Cambodian Authorities Confirm
Posted: 04 Sep 2012, Ernesto
Last week, police arrested Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.
Svartholm was arrested in his $750 per month rented apartment above the Cadillac Bar on the riverfront. Some early reports suggested that perhaps he had been arrested for something unrelated to his activities with The Pirate Bay, but by Sunday that notion had all but disappeared.
“His arrest was made at the request of the Swedish government for a crime related to information technology,” a police spokesman confirmed.
With no standing extradition treaty between Cambodia and Sweden, some observers questioned how easy it would be to get Svartholm sent back to Sweden to face his jail sentence. But as explained in our previous report, such matters aren’t an issue in Cambodia. There are few Kim Dotcom-style extradition battles there – when authorities want you out, that’s what happens.
Today we have confirmation that Svartholm will indeed be leaving Cambodia, sooner rather than later.
According to a report from the local Phnom Penh Post, this morning a meeting took place between National Deputy Police Commissioner General Sok Phal and Swedish authorities. Due to the lack of an extradition treaty, Sweden made a request for Svartholm to be deported. Cambodian authorities appear to have agreed.
“We will use the Immigration Law against him to deport him out of our country and Minister of Interior Sar Kheng will sign on the deportation request letter from the police commissioner soon,” said Phal.
In what TorrentFreak is informed is typical of the way issues like this are handled in Cambodia, General Sok Phal said although Svartholm would be deported, he didn’t know where the Swede would end up.
“We will have to just deport him, wherever he goes, we don’t know, but he has to be out of Cambodia,” he said.
Unless special arrangements are made it’s likely that Svartholm will end up at Cambodia’s deportation jail, 7 km west of Phnom Penh opposite Pochentong Airport. He is currently being held at an unknown location by the Ministry of Interior’s immigration department.